Hop to it: How to Create Effective B2B Social Media Marketing

Archive blog
4 minutes read

B2B Social Media Marketing Strategy

With the new financial year and Q2 budgets imminent, spending on social media marketing is seen as the reserve of B2C. However, 75% of B2B buyers use social media marketing to support their purchase decision [1]. Hence creating a social presence and allocating resource is a vital part of your B2B digital marketing plan.

But this does not mean funneling all your efforts into LinkedIn as some statistics would suggest [2].

Spoiler: It’s not just LinkedIn social media

An effective use of social media stems from a clearly defined and researched social media strategy aligning social creation with wider business goals. An effective social plan helps to drive right time, right place, right content marketing to bolster conversions and protect ROI.

Despite this, only 32% of businesses have a documented social media strategy [3]. To create a social presence that gets results, the Think Beyond marketers share their 5 social media strategy essentials below.

To discuss your social strategy with a member of Think Beyond, call 01565 632206 for a no obligation consultation.

B2B Social Media Strategy Essentials

1. Start with Objectives

Any social strategy needs clearly defined objectives that serve business aims as outlined in your business plan. List what it is you hope to achieve, how this serves your overall business goal/s and how you will track success.

For example, if you want to increase traffic to your blog to meet new email subscriber figures you may consider tracking metrics such as clicks versus sign ups. For campaigns focused on brand awareness, follower count, engagement or impressions matter.

2. Know your Audience

Research is your social media strategy’s best friend. Use social media listening to understand how prospects view and engage with your brand. Conduct competitor analysis to discover the conversations that matter most to your industry.

Regularly review your audience insight tools to drill down into your buyer personas and firmographics. Create detailed social profiles complete with accurate pain points that can fuel your content targeting.

Be mindful however, that your personas may change from one social platform to another and your content should reflect this. Social is far from a one-size fits all approach.

3. Choose your Platforms

Once you have defined your objectives and identified your audience, choose your social platforms.

LinkedIn is often the go-to for B2B marketers and is cited as the most effective B2B social platform. LinkedIn is followed in usage by Facebook, Twitter and Google+ [4].

Evaluate your current efforts to determine platform specific ROI and ask:
● Is this working?
● Is my target market here? If so, how are they engaging with this platform
● Does this platform help me to achieve business goals?

4. Consider Paid Campaigns

From boosting posts on Facebook to InMails on LinkedIn and multichannel influencer campaigns, the opportunities for engagement increase with paid social actions. This allows your brand to target both new and existing prospects.

An effective social media strategy should budget for paid campaigns and carefully track ROI, answering how this action serves your social media objectives and related business goals.

5. Analyse and Refine – Constantly

A social media strategy is a work in progress. Constant analysis can help you to determine what is working and what is not to best direct your efforts. Don’t be afraid to split test your campaigns and actively ask your social audience for feedback in the form of surveys.

With new emerging audiences and demographic shifts par for the course on social media, remaining flexible is key to social media strategy.

B2B marketing done right

Social media marketing has a clear revenue value to the B2B sector and can help to attract, nurture and convert prospects. It provides everything from brand awareness to social proof to hard conversions.

The marketing opportunities are vast but could quickly become diluted without a defined plan in place. Posting a blanket update across all channels may satisfy that you have “done” social media that day but it is unlikely to impact. You cannot achieve your overall marketing aim with no goal, audience or analysis.

How Think Beyond can help

At Think Beyond, our marketers have helped businesses of all sizes to take control of their digital strategy. Working closely with business owners, CEOs, sales and marketing directors, Think Beyond delivers effective end-to-end campaign management. Our social media packages include full training, research and application of agreed strategies with our consultants working in partnership with your team to achieve set outcomes.

Call 01565 632206 to find out how we can work together on your digital health.

Alternatively, submit your contact details online and a member of the Think Beyond team will be in touch shortly.

New budget, new quarter, new opportunities. Hop to it – get your social media strategy on track and you could start to see results as soon as Easter.


  1. Blue Corona
  2. LinkedIn is frequently cited as the top performing social channel for B2B social media, with 65% of B2B said to have acquired custom through LinkedIn paid ads
  3. Sprout Social 
  4. Sprout Social